Trump Shooter Researched Lee Harvey Oswald, FBI Head Testifies

The man identified by the US as the shooter at Donald Trump’s campaign rally used encrypted messaging apps and flew a surveillance drone over the area ahead of his assassination attempt, the head of the FBI testified.

Appearing before Congress to answer questions about the July 13 assault in Pennsylvania, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray also said that a week before the attack, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks did a Google search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Wray said the government’s probe was ongoing and that investigators were still assessing the motive of the gunman, who was shot and killed by the Secret Service after he fired eight rounds, wounding the former president in his right ear and killing an attendee. He said Crooks appears to have been “interested in public figures more broadly.”

“So far we have not found any evidence of any accomplices or co-conspirators, foreign or domestic,” Wray told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Based on the short list of contacts on Crooks’ phone, the description of him as a loner appears to be accurate, Wray added.

Wray also said investigators aren’t sure yet how exactly Trump was injured. “There’s some question about whether or not its a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said.

“I want to assure you and the American people that the men and women of the FBI will continue to work tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened,” he told the committee.

Intense Hearings

Wray’s testimony comes two days after Kimberly Cheatle, who was head of the Secret Service at the time of the shooting, appeared before the House Oversight Committee, resigning on Tuesday after an intense grilling about the security failure. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, lawmakers have launched probes of their own. Crooks’ ability to access a rooftop with a clear line of sight to Trump, the Republican nominee in this year’s presidential race, has sparked searing bipartisan criticism but has also become a political talking point in a fiery election campaign. 

US officials have said Crooks climbed up on a roof within sight of the outdoor stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired a semi-automatic rifle, injuring Trump, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore as he shielded his family with his body, and gravely wounding two others. A Secret Service sharpshooter then killed Crooks. On Wednesday, Wray testified that Crooks got to the roof using mechanical equipment on the ground and pipes on the building.

The FBI has said its investigation so far indicates Crooks wasn’t known to the bureau before the attack and that technicians had accessed his phone and were analyzing his electronic devices. 

“Starting somewhere around July 6th or so, he became very focused on former President Trump and this rally,” Wray told the committee. He said analysis of a laptop that the investigation has tied to Crooks revealed that he did the Google search on Oswald and Kennedy on July 6. 

“That was the same day it appears he registered for the Butler rally,” Wray said.

‘Rearview Mirror’ 

He said Crooks went to Butler a week before the rally and then on the morning of the event and again in the afternoon.

Authorities think Crooks flew the drone in the area about two hours before the shooting. Wray said the FBI has reverse-engineered the drone’s flight path and found that Crooks might have had a vantage point showing what was behind him, “almost like giving him a rearview mirror.” 

He said Crooks had two “relatively crude” explosive devices in his car that could be remotely detonated from the roof. They weren’t in an activated mode when they were found, Wray said.

He said eight cartridges were found on the roof.

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